A Tale of Two Worlds

Dark Paralysis…. what more could we say about this terrible affliction that has affected so many, myself included? All of us has lost someone to this terrible curse, even our beloved King, who asked me to try once again to decode this mysterious affliction. I had been begrudgingly tasking along on this  request, coming close to completing yet another boring tome of facts and theories that would once again fail to answer the real questions we all have when something extraordinary happened. All at once  in hospitals all across our fair nation all of the sleeping woke up! It wasn't until after having interviewed a few of them myself did my urgency, and direction, for this book change. Simply understanding the Dark Paralysis was no longer enough. I now felt the need to both explain to the awoken what happened and about the world and explain to the shocked world just what the awoken had endured.

1) Dark Paralysis - A History of Sleep

Perhaps the best place to start would be an understanding of the origins of this affliction and how it has transpired throughout the years for both us and those afflicted. A history, if you will concerning the affliction and theories held on its cause.

Dark Paralysis is nothing new.  It has been an affliction that has plagued men and women of all races. It is a term first coined in the early First Era by a healer trying to understand and describe what was going on with his patient…

The individual, an elven man of good health and young age, ceased to awaken one morning. At first it appeared as if this individual was dead, yet further examination proved that the individual still possessed a steady pulse and normal breathing. The individual's body was unable to pick up any sensations exposed to it, appearing very much paralyzed, yet the individual's eye movement was rapid, as if in a state of dreaming. The condition took on the appearance of sleep, complete with the paralysis of sleep, yet with no means to break the individual from sleep's grasp. It was a paralysis of the darkest night, that persisted into the waking hours of the day and beyond - a dark paralysis which would not release its victim until the victim successfully dreamt past the cause that left the victim so inflicted.

- Dr. Ayramosa  Xeric, writing in a Journal of Medicine, in the year  1024 of the First Era.

The term Dark Paralysis stuck, and doctors and healers for many ages since tried to solve its secrets. Two things however seemed very clear, first being that the Dark Paralysis always came after the individual suffered something so horrific or so tragic that it broke the individual's psyche, and second that over time some who were afflicted would come out of it on their own. Those that did not typically perished due to malnutrition and dehydration, a cause of death that was prevalent earlier first and second eras. 

Dark Paralysis, while known, was however rare. Not everyone experienced it. From all of the research I've managed to gather from any texts that survived from before the Great Magic War, roughly 10% of the population might have experienced it, and that is perhaps an exaggerated number. 

1.1) Dark Paralysis After the Great Magic War

If you were observant, you might have already picked up on a major question regarding the Dark Paralysis epidemic of our current age. So many have it, and not only that, it doesn't seem to require a great tragedy to throw someone into the dark paralysis. There's even been recorded incidents of women awake giving birth to babies who are trapped in dark paralysis. Or stranger yet, women in the dark paralysis somehow becoming pregnant and giving birth to babies who are also inflicted - a scandal that has brought down many respected healers who are accused by the afflicted's families of raping the sleeping women.  

That's a tale for another day. What is troubling though is why so many? One theory that gained popularity early on is that the Great Magic War was so terrible and so tragic that perhaps the memory of it has invaded the genetic memory, much like the after affect of the Great Magic War changed our genetics to awaken our runic souls. It is a theory that is heavily supported by the scientific community, but not by everyone - including myself. While it is easy to believe that the Great Magic War would affect so many people for a time, 835 years have already past, and we've already been on the surface for more than half that time. The memories of the Great Magic War are all but forgotten, with only myths and legends of it holding on to this day.

No, there is yet another, perhaps more troubling theory that I think might hold the answer…

The current dark sleep is that of the dark god of power, Zodo himself. A mortal's sleep invokes dreams of grand worlds and adventures for that dreamer, what then could we expect of the forced sleep of a god? His power invades us all, having awakened into all of us just a hint of power - a well planned trap for the dark god who is stuck within a dying vessel ever looking for a way out yet dragging as many as he can to his own eventual demise. No medicine or science can defeat the dark god's sleep - only the freeing power of the Mogen David and her patient plan to free the trapped souls remain as our final hope.

 - Holy Pontiff Nikolai de'Carte

Now before everyone gets excited here, ready to through this book into the heap pile as yet another bit of dribble from a religious nut, lets think about this carefully. We all know the tales of the Great Magic War, of how the paladin Taal Mercleis… excuse me, Saint Taal Mercleis, defeated the despot Xerxes Zodo to stop his eventual destruction of our world, right? Whether we hold that story true or not, we can all acknowledge that the Great Magic War did take place, and the results are not only our use of magic and the destruction of the wonders of the previous era, but also of the dark paralysis epidemic before us now. So while it might be easy to dismiss the words coming from any church, maybe, just maybe there might be a bit of truth to them.

1.2) The True Cause of the Dark Paralysis?

With that in mind, lets look over the words of the holy pontiff again. He states that the dark paralysis is not the dark paralysis of any individual, but that of the god Zodo, which is forced into a dark paralysis and draws others into that paralysis simply by their connection to him by the very awakening of magic within them. If we take that with the knowledge that the dark paralysis afflicts those who suffered a tragedy, we can perhaps paint a better picture over what has brought on this terrible epidemic.

The Great Magic War.

Well  not the war itself perhaps, but suffering a defeat at the end of the war would no doubt be tragic for a god. As we all know from stories passed down, at the center of the war were two individuals - Taal Mercleis and Xerxes who proclaimed himself Xerxes Zodo. Taal is celebrated as a hero and a saint by both the Church of Mogen David and the Church of Saint Ardatha for having taken down the villain, Xerxes. Xerxes is infamous as the "mad emperor" who supposedly lost his mind near the end of the First Era, sparking a war that spanned the globe. Which of these though, was Zodo?

The first and easiest guess is Xerxes, and it would be right - to a point. Here's a passage I was able to find in an old First Era recording of one of Xerxes experimentations…

Xerxes had clung to the orb as if it were more precious to him than life himself, even forsaking his wife and daughter and having them executed for touching the orb. The emperor grew ever and ever more paranoid, certain that someone was going to snatch the orb from him and end his life before he ever could gain immortality. He worked feverishly on grand experiments to change himself to be like that of a xodian, and to create his own xodian army that would forever protect him, serve him, and be mindless unable to do anything but. On Marpenoth the 21st of 1999, Xerxes had forced the xodian Lector Clairstory to rape his sister. Xerxes then took the fetus eight months later in a botched abortion, extracting stem cells from it into himself and discarding the fetus into the trash. Using the power of the orb he empowered the cells he injected, hoping it would transform him. Instead the orb cracked, and much of its power found its way to the fetus who was discovered still living by Lector Clairstory. This fetus would later grow up to become Taal Mercleis, named after the married name of Lector's sister in her honor, the man who would take on Xerxes to end once and for all his tyranny.

So, according to that excerpt Taal was a baby left for dead, upon who this mysterious energy from a cracked orb entered. Interesting, no? Lets dive deeper, this time into an old passage supposedly recorded by a bard who witnessed the final fight between Taal and Xerxes…

The two fought to the death within the war-blasted wasteland by Mira. Xerxes brought down his blackened blade but it could not harm the people's champion. Taal brought up one hand and from it came the might and power of a hundred suns exploding in agony, ripping the flesh from the mad emperor. As he fell, his sword flew true into the unsuspecting victor, laying a mortal wound deep within Taal's chest before shattering into seven pieces. Taal gasped with mortal horror and as he fell so did countless others into a deep slumber. 

Now I'm not trying to change history here nor prove that perhaps Taal was Zodo all along. The passages shared are not proven after all. What I am trying to prove is that perhaps, as the Holy Pontiff speculated, the dark paralysis we know today is indeed simply an individual case, that of a god and thus why it affects so many. Xerxes was defeated - that could have caused it if Xerxes was indeed Zodo. Taal's fall could also cause it if by tragic chance he instead was Zodo. Or perhaps if both contained parts of the god within them. 

2) Dealing with the Awakening

The Awakening is, without question, a very big deal. Throughout the past eight centuries, healers have been trying to awaken the sleeping with no success. Very, very rarely did someone awake, but those that did had seeming fell into the more traditional dark paralysis, and not the kind so many others were in. So with so many awakening suddenly, you can expect a wide range of emotions and questions. A jubilation, no doubt, by the families as well as a bit of envy from the families who's loved one died before they could awaken. A wondering of how did they awaken and why. And of course, a great deal of fear. Fear and befuddlement from the awakened, yes, but also fear from the rest of us as well. How would we, how could we help them? Provide for them? Do we have the needed resources, money, infrastructure in place to care for so many who for so long simply slept? What if the sleep is only temporary, or what if, like our king fears, it is a terrible omen, or even an attack?

But before we can deal with the awakened, we need to understand them.

2.1) Time For Them Was Different

When speaking with them, the first thing I learned is that they experienced time far differently than us. While we are only 836 years into the second era, for them many eras and many generations have passed - six if I recall one account correctly. At first this might be bewildering for us to understand but think about it. When you dream at night, does the dream not seem to last longer than it really does? Science says a dream lasts only minutes, but for us who dream it can feel like hours, or even days. Also consider that while in this dark paralysis, the afflicted aged and died quickly. This is largely due to our own inability to properly care for them. In recent years we have managed to care for them better, thus keeping them alive longer, but before things like IV's and proper use of feeding and healing magic techniques, their bodies would age and wither faster simply due to malnutrition. It is no doubt that this change on their bodies affected their minds and perhaps even the combined dream-state world that they were all trapped in. Imagine, as your body wastes away in months, your dream body ages in years simply due to the illusion of time within a dream.

So remember, they will be confused because of this. They have seen many years, many generations, and many events we can't even imagine in a much shorter span of time. All they have ever known was in that dream world, so to come to grips with the true passage of time would be nearly impossible for them, for now.

2.2) They Knew Only Zodo

Another thing to remember is that they were, if my previous theory holds out, in Zodo's dream. From my conversations with them it seems that Zodo was the only god they knew, and they worshipped him. Some have told me of great tales involving their histories even. So we should take great care to adjust them to our world and our rules. They wouldn't and couldn't know that Zodo worship is very much illegal here. We should show some patience with them as we help them to adjust to wider and more free religions or even allow them to experience the disbelief and have no religion. We should not judge them yet, or hold them accountable for the crime of only knowing Zodo. How could we, what if that was all we ever knew? 

2.3) For Them, They Might Be Waking Into a Nightmare

Again, all they ever known was the dream world. The lives they had, the people they knew and loved - all a dream. Some may wake and find a sister they thought long dead and be over joyed, however most would wake and find themselves in a new life, with the wife or husband they married in the dream no longer being next to them. They would wake into a world they do not know, and the past they knew would be told to them as nothing more than a dream. Everything they knew, gone.

For some, this can send them into a depression, or even drive them mad. Just be patient, and help them adjust. Treat their stories as facts because for them they were facts, and at the same time help them to learn of the world they now live in. 

2.4) We Should Take Their Stories As Lessons

One last thing I want to add is that we should not only listen to their tales from the dream world, but also learn from them. Remember, they were likely all within Zodo's dream. Therefore the tales they tell us could help teach us more about this god and his plans here. If we know what he did there, we might be able to stop him from doing the same here. At the very least, if this was simply a dream of Zodo that trapped these people, perhaps we can learn how to prevent it from happening again.

3) Final Remarks

I do hope that we all learn something from this. I know I did. I will continue to search out answers and see if I can solve the riddle of the dark paralysis. In the mean time, let us care for our awakened brothers and sisters and let us not jump to rash conclusions. 

As ever, respectfully yours,

Nathaniel Aeryn Gourimondi

Royal Chronicler to

His Highness, King Cadimus Mercleis III, Lord of the Barons, Protector of the Chalcedon, and Emperor of the Realm